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Thursday, 22 December 2011

I have great news! It seems my series is going to be put to work at last! It’s rather fortunate that I got it done just in time for this AWESOME opportunity ;)

Are you a student from the MEA region who’s graduating this year (well, even if you’ve recently graduated, I think you should go for it. Worked for me ;) )? Are you ready to have the exact same opportunity I had? DO YOU WANT TO WORK FOR MICROSOFT?! Of course YOU DO ;)

Anyways, enough with me rambling, and let’s cut to the chase. Here’s the announcement:

What fuels your passion?

Deciding where to start your career can be as nerve-wracking as it is exciting. Maybe you don’t know exactly what you want to do. Maybe you don’t even have a technology background. Fortunately, Microsoft will help you to build a career that evolves along with your interests and passions.

Jump right in to the deep end

That’s a phrase we hear a lot from people during their first week at Microsoft. And with good reason. From day one, you’ll plunge headfirst into engaging, meaningful projects. Your team members and managers will help you get up-to-speed in no time. It’s a thrilling way to start your career—and it’s only the beginning. Now take the first step.

Full-Time & Internship Software Development and Software Development in Test Positions

Apply by January 15to be considered for our

Dubai Interview Event

March 5-8, 2012

Important information:

Information on applying, Microsoft Benefits, including complete relocation, US work visa sponsorship and other perks are available at www.microsoft.com/university

University recruiters at Microsoft review resumes with the following topical areas in mind:

Academic Record,

Relevant Work Experience,

Leadership

Please note we are seeking Software Development Full Time & Intern candidates. NOTE:Full Time candidates must be graduating Dec. 2011 – August 2012. Candidates with graduation dates after August 2012 would be considered for internships.

Travel & Accommodations will be covered by Microsoft

Update:

So, many people keep asking the same question: “How do we apply?!”, which, I have to admit, is a very valid question. Here’s the answer:

Wednesday, 21 December 2011

I know it’s been a while since the first 2 posts, but I’m finally getting around to writing the 3rd part of this series, which I hope is helping you, dear reader, to prepare yourself to get your dream job ;)

So, after writing your rock star resume, and after making a great first impression in your phone interview, you should be asked to do an in-person interview, or rather in-person interviews (as I had 4 of them ;) ). This is what you’ve been working for in the first two steps of the process. An opportunity to tell your story in your own words, to demonstrate your skills, to meet the people involved and to ask any questions YOU have.

Wednesday, 9 November 2011

So, I’ve recently posted about the offer I got to work at Microsoft. Then, I started a 3 part series to talk about my experience getting the offer. The first one was about writing a good resume. In this one, I’m going to talk about the second step in the process: The Phone Interview.

In the previous blog post, I mentioned that writing a good resume is essential since it’s usually your first interaction with the company, and allows them to filter interesting profiles that match their requirements. However, as big companies get tons of resumes regularly, they usually have a second filter, and that is, usually, a Phone Interview.

A phone interview takes usually about 30 minutes, where the interviewer would call you by phone or using Skype. They introduce themselves, tell you how the interview is going to take place, then start going through the interview questions (more on that shortly). In the end, they’ll ask if YOU have any questions (more on that later).

Sunday, 23 October 2011

In a previous post, I talked about the job offer I got to work at Microsoft. This is the first of a 3 post series where I share my experience and some tips & tricks and resources that could help YOU do the same ;)

So, The first step is your resume/CV. You have to submit a great one, since it’s the first thing they’ll get to see of you (and of your work, since it’s something YOUproduced).

However, and before going deep into how to present your resume, I would like to touch on something of the utmost importance. If you want to have a great resume, you need to HAVE a great resume. Confusing? not really. You can’t impress them with what you would/will do, and certainly not by faking it, so you better make sure to invest in yourself, and pack up a good deal of experiences and skills. This will also have the benefit of giving you more confidence in your interviews (more on that later).

Wednesday, 19 October 2011

So, I received some AWESOME news recently! An offer from Microsoft for an SDE (Software Development Engineer) position in its Online Services Division :D and as the title suggests, I couldn’t refuse ;)

As a result, I wanted to share with you, the different stages I went through in order to get this offer, along with some tips & tricks and resources that could help YOU land a job at the company of your dreams.

First, let me give you some context, and summarize the process, then I’ll try to give more details along with the tips & tricks in the following posts.

In the beginning of September, it came to my knowledge (through Facebook, oddly enough :P) that Microsoft was having a recruitment campaign in the MEA (Middle-East and Africa) region, and that there will be an event in Dubai from October 3rd to the 6th. The news mentioned the website “http://www.microsoft.com/university”, so I just went there and took a look around at the different “graduate” offers. It looked (very) interesting (duh!), so I decided to give it a try. I wrote a resume and submitted my application in the website. And waited …

Sunday, 21 August 2011

I mentioned in my previous post that I’ve grown quite some interest in CodeRush from DevExpress, and part of that is because of the plug-in model they have in place, which is pretty powerful, yet simple to tap into and develop refactorings, code-providers, etc.

In this post, I’m going to talk about the first CodeRush plugin I’ve ever wrote! It has a funny story, actually, where I was watching this recording of a CodeRush Feature Workshop, and at some point in the webinar, an attendee asked a question about how would a particular refactoring be implemented. Rory, started talking about that, and how easy it would be, then Mark Miller said: “Well, I almost wanna right that right now! It's like, so easy to do”. I thought to myself: “why not?!, this is my chance! :D”, and I just stopped the recording right away, opened Visual Studio and started developing my first Plugin! :) Just to be honest, as Mark suggested, this is very basic, and simple. But, heck, it got me hooked!

Tuesday, 16 August 2011

So, recently, I’ve been having more and more interest in DevExpress’s CodeRush add-in for Visual Studio. I’ve had CodeRush Xpress installed for some time, but couldn’t use it well because of a certain performance issue. After fixing that issue, by disabling a couple of features that were slowing it down: I’ve been in contact via twitter with Rory Becker from DevExpress, and he gave me a lot of help with CodeRush, like using its powerful templates and so on. Since then, I found CodeRush to be very powerful productivity tool, and actually kind of fun also, and it helped me save a lot of time.

OK, enough with the not-very-important talk. Why am I talking about this anyway? Well, that’s because I’m going to try and post about the cool stuff I find out and learn about CodeRush. Also, since I’m following some DevExpress Webinars, especially some of the ones about writing CodeRush Plug-Ins, I’m going to try and post about that, and comment on some examples showing the development step-by-step. CodeRush plug-in development doesn’t seem to be very hard, yet it’s very enjoyable.

Wednesday, 22 June 2011

So, I've been out of the game for a LONG time! A lot of stuff had to do with that, but it's mainly because I've been lazy! I like my posts to be very well written and well thought of, and that calls for a considerable amount of work. On the other hand, I love bloggin! and it feels good and exciting to see my posts pick up interest and have more and more visitors (to whom I hope my posts would be of some help :) )

I've had my blog up at "sos.cs-esi.com", which is gone now :P, and since I got my own domain name (cool! :D ) thanks to my dear friend "Waleed Boutemine", I've been planning to start blogging again. And since "the best time to plant an oak tree was 20 years ago, and the second best time to do that is RIGHT NOW", as the saying goes, I just woke up this morning, opened a new post and started typing :)

I intend to write about stuff that I find interesting, mainly about technology. This includes, but is not restricted to, talking about new AWESOME technologies, explaining things that I'm learning and deemed to be worth sharing and also maybe some problems that I struggled with along with how I solved them. I haven't yet decided on whether to put "personal" stuff in here or have that in a separate subdomain, but I'll leave that to its time ;)

I think this might be enough for a first post (my laziness seems to be creeping in again :P ), so have a nice day, and don't forget to follow me on Twitter ;)